Kauai 2013 - Day 3 & 4

Friday was our first day to hang out at the beach.  We decided to spend our morning at Kiahuna Beach. This beach fronts the Kiahuna Plantation, Sheraton Resort and a few other resorts. We found parking on the Poipu Rd near the entrance of Kiahuna Plantation.  There is a beach access path you can see from the road.  

It was so refreshing to be back in the ocean.  We all love the water!  Both our boys are on swim teams and play water polo.  Mike and I really enjoy snorkeling and is one of our favorite activities on Maui.  However, I have resigned myself to the fact that Kauai may not offer great snorkeling.  We will probably wait to do our snorkeling once we get to the North Shore.  

It was a perfect day to play at the beach, and this is a beautiful beach with the softest sand! The boys did a little boogie boarding, but mostly we just treaded water and played in the waves.  You do have to be careful of the rocks in the water.  I scratched my foot a couple of times.  

After swimming for a while, the boys took a break and decided to create Michael the Merman!  We realized later this is when we should have reapplied the sunscreen!  

After about 3 hours at the beach, we head back home to rest, recover and refuel.

Later that evening we went to Hanapepe to attend the Friday Night Art Walk.  I made an initial mistake of telling the family we were going to an "art gallery walk."  We had spent 10 days in Washington D.C. last year so I think the last thing they wanted to hear was the word "gallery." Once I convinced them it was more than just art, we loaded up and headed out west.

We first checked out the Talk Story Bookstore - The Western-most book store in the United States.

Mike picked up a few Nelson Demille books.  Next, we stopped at one of the food vendors who was selling Carne asada tacos.  These were pretty good.  Then just a few steps away was The Right Slice pie ladies.   I have read many comments on TA about how good their pies are.  We ordered 2 slices of Lilikoi cheesecake and they were a big hit with the family. So good! And not heavy like some cheesecakes, very light.  

We then took a walk over to the swinging bridge and the Aloha Spice Company.  Bought a few gifts for back home.  Finished up our "gallery" walk and headed back home.

Day 4 ~ Hanalei Bay Sand Castle Contest

Started the day by taking a quick walk by around the resorts.  We walked down past the Hyatt and just past Shipwreck Beach.  The weather was overcast today, and we ended up getting caught in a brief rain shower.  It was still plenty warm which made the rain feel refreshing.

We decided it would be fun to drive up to Hanalei Bay and view the sand castle contest.  The weather continued to be mostly cloudy with occasional rain showers, but we welcomed the clouds because a few of us had gotten a little too much sun yesterday.

Hanalei was VERY busy as predicted, but found parking in one of the neighborhoods. We got there around 1:00 pm and decided to get some tacos and burritos from Pat's Taqueria. Wow, just realized we've been eating a lot of tacos!  Anyway, I would say the tacos were o.k.  We've had better, but the burrito was pretty good.

Here are pictures of all the activity and some of the contestants:

I wished we could have stayed until 4 when the event was finished.  It would have been nice to see the final completion of many of the sand castles, but it was getting socked in with clouds again and starting to rain.  We then tried to find the Mango Festival, but my poor navigational skills failed us. Whoops!

On our return drive home, we did a quick drive through Princeville to see the condo we would be staying at later.  Looking forward to exploring this area.  It is quite a contrast from the other locations.  I will try and give more of our observations and perspectives later.

Had a nice drive back south.  Here are a few pics of King Kong profile and Sleeping Giant as we were driving thru Anaholo.  These were taken while driving so may be a tad blurry.

Just before reaching Kapaa, as most of you know, there is a by-pass road that loops you around the town of Kapaa to help you avoid traffic congestion.  Well, I thought it would be a great idea to try.  So, we took what I thought was the right turn and continued to drive and drive.  It was a nice drive, but soon realized we shouldn't be heading this far toward the mountains.  Whoops, another navigational failure!   Pulled over, turned around, tossed my paper maps aside and broke out my iPhone with Google maps and quickly got us back on track on the by-pass road. As a side note, my family loves to tease me and this will go down as, "Remember the time when mom got us lost in the mountains in Kauai!"

Our last stop was at the Kapaia Stitchery in Lihue.  Can't you just hear the excitement bursting from the car when I tell the guys we're stopping! lol  I do have to say that my group is VERY patient and tolerant of my side trips.  Surprisingly, they often enjoy these places.  Again, easily entertained.

All the woman in my family are quilters and sewers. Except me.  Apparently, I wasn't blessed with the quilting gene.  However, this doesn't mean I don't appreciate the work and creativity that goes into making these quilts.  My family makes the most beautiful quilts so when I walked into Kapaia Stitchery and saw all the gorgeous quilts hanging around the store, I had to take some pictures to share with them.  Here is a sampling of the quilts.

I went into the store hoping to find a simple Hawaiian print pillow, but was too overwhelmed that I only ended up purchasing a box of Mahola note cards!

Finally got back to the condo, made dinner and walked down to Poipu Beach to try and catch the sunset.  Not the best sunset, but still a nice ending to a fun day.